Forget the fence: these are the real markers of the US-Mexico border – in pictures

Forget the fence: these are the real markers of the US-Mexico border – in pictures

The 276 monuments marking the US-Mexico border were erected after the Mexican-American war which ended in 1848. David Taylor, an Arizona-based artist and professor, set out to photograph them all in 2007 – a seven-year task that took him from the Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua border to the Pacific Ocean, passing through cities and remote mountainous terrain

Border Monument No. 220A - 29 Jun 2009

Border Monument No. 222 30 Jun 2009

Latitude: 32°39.527’. Longitude: 115°34.855’. Altitude: 1.6m. Northwest view. Near Centinela, Mexicali, Baja California. The family who lived adjacent to the monument in 2009 was no longer there when I returned to give them a book. A neighbor, also in the photograph, thought that they were from Central America and may have been deported.

Border Monument No. 244 - 9 Aug 2009

Border Monument No. 123 - 16 May 2010

Latitude: 31°19.962’. Longitude: 110°57.710’. Altitude: 1255.8m/4,018.6ft. North view. East of the Nogales Mariposa Port of Entry. When climbing over the fence crossers step on the metal bar in the razor wire to avoid being cut.

Border Monument No. 2 - 3 Nov 2012

Latitude: 31°47.032’. Longitude: 106°32.239’. Altitude: 1299.1m/4,157.1ft. Northeast view. Mount Cristo Rey. Franklin mountains in the distance. Tore a calf muscle in my left leg while hiking back from the monument. View of west El Paso and the Franklin Mountains.